The Bubble Genius Bob & Chez Show, 8/5/11

Exhausted from the Stupid; The Debt Ceiling; Mitch McConnell and Terrorism; Wall Street Crash; Conservatives vs Liberals; Message Discipline; Primarying President Obama; Republican War Against Cartoons; Recession Indicators; and much more! Brought to you by Bubble Genius!

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I wish you guys would give us a little insight – with both of your expertise in the field – as to why you would shower such high praise on the Limbaugh. I think it was a show or two ago, that Chez said something like ‘he’s a total clown and an impotent, raging prick, but Limbaugh is a genius broadcaster. You have to give him that.’

I think he really used the word genius, if my memory serves me. Well, I dont want to give that kind of credit to Limbaugh. And I don’t see why anyone would. I think he’s got pretty good delivery, and decent timing – but he also does quite a bit of stuttering and pausing to read his notes. It seems to me that the main reason for his success is that he came along at the right time, offering the rest of the raging, impotent pricks of Real America™ just the hate filled bile that they’d been yearning for.

Is there something I’m missing?

Chez Pazienza

Yeah, Dan — but it’s something that’s really easy to miss. What makes Limbaugh brilliant in interacting with his audience is that he’s comfortable enough to not worry about making minor mistakes. He 100% owns his broadcast. Doing mass-market talk radio isn’t about always speaking with the perfect cadence or never fumbling; it’s about an excellent balance of emotion and control, and Limbaugh’s great at that. You’re right — his timing is very good. But it’s much more than that. It’s basically about capturing the audience’s attention, and as much as what he says sucks hard, he’s damn talented at doing just that. I’d actually argue, though, that Beck’s even better because Beck actually uses techniques that are almost hypnotic: he knows when to speak quietly and draw the audience in and, obviously, he can mimic honest-to-God human emotion better than just about anybody.

Republicans are successful not just because of message discipline, they’re also really good at misdirection: “Look! Over there! Brown people! Abortions! Terrorists! Women who don’t know their place! Gays getting married! Vote for me, I’ll stop them all!”

Chez, let go of the fantasy. A President Hilary Clinton would find herself being screeched at by the Rs just as loudly and just as stupidly, and about more or less the same things (substitute “white trash” for the never-quite-uttered N-word).

Bob, let go of the fantasy. If President Obama had invoked the 14th Amendment, he’d have been impeached, the Supremes (by a 5-4 vote) would have jumped in and declared the 14th Amendment null and void in toto, the Rs—and Conservadems, with Ben Nelson leading the charge—would have refused to work with him ever again, and the economy would have suffered even more.

“A sponge is smarter than Gretchen Carlson.” Well, yes, but that’s a very low bar to clear. The average slime mold is smarter than the average Fox News host. Furniture has deeper thoughts.

Still listening to it, and pausing in my work to do so, but I will say this.

Chez, there is zero point to primarying a sitting president, even if you actually thought that he completely sucked, unless you either want to lose the next presidential election to a Winger or you just don’t give a damn anymore.

NO point. Even talking about it publicly is unwise, because that’s how memes begin.

muselet

Too true. Kennedy primaried Carter in 1980 (and was graceless in defeat) and drove down Carter’s positives. Didn’t work out too well for anyone.

–alopecia

Chez Pazienza

Understood, Nicole. You’re talking about somebody — that would be me — who has always maintained that every mindless complaint about Obama from the left, center-left, whatever, to some extent does the job of Republican strategists for them. I’ve pushed hard for smart accountability, meaning the kind that accepts political reality. I of course don’t think that Hillary Clinton is the answer and I do believe that it would lead to chaos for the Democrats and play right into the GOP’s hands — but I can’t believe that a couple of obvious Obama supporters and political pragmatists talking about a piece in Salon is going to bring about the end of the Obama campaign. It’s worth openly discussing if only to use a little rational thought to shoot it down, which is what Bob did quickly. I don’t disagree with him, incidentally, in case I didn’t make that clear. But yes, of course I’ve wondered how someone like Hillary Clinton would’ve handled the debt-ceiling standoff, and it’s kind of silly that I shouldn’t be able to say that in public.

Wondering how someone else would handle it, and discussing it openly in terms of primarying a sitting president, is two very different things. Although I do agree that open discussion with someone who is able to quickly shoot it down, is not so bad.

I have to say though, that I don’t agree that it’s “silly” to refuse to discuss the primary thing publicly because, as I said, that’s how memes start and grow.

“Obama’s a socialist.” “Obama’s weak.” “Obama must be primaried.”

Prior to this point, that I am aware, none of us has gone there on this site. The fact that we have now, means that the meme has grown. That’s not a good thing.

In my opinion, it just makes much more sense to keep it from becoming a meme in the first place.

TimEldred

Without the Fairness in Media Doctrine, Spongebob is not REQUIRED to give the “other side” of any story. He [Viacom] has the exact same freedom as Fox News to give only the side they feel like giving. The same is true at all levels of media. So it follows that…